GUIDE TO THE APHIS DELISTING PROCESS FOR FEDERAL NOXIOUS 

WEEDS 

The Six Steps 

1. Identify a Federal noxious weed that may no longer meet the Plant Protection Act 

(PPA) authority for applying remedial measures

2. Prepare a risk assessment

3. Prepare an environmental assessment if warranted

4. Publish a proposed rule in the Federal Register

5. Analyze and respond to public comments

6. Publish a final rule in the Federal Register

Discussion of Each Step 

1. Identify a weed that may no longer meet the PPA authority for applying remedial 

measures.

The PPA definition of a noxious weed is broad: “any plant or plant product that can 

directly or indirectly injure or cause damage to crops (including nursery stock or plant 

products), livestock, poultry, or other interests of agriculture, irrigation, navigation,

the natural resources of the United States, the public health, or the environment.” 

APHIS lists in the noxious weed regulations only those taxa that qualify as quarantine 

pests under the definition of that term in the International Plant Protection Convention 

(IPPC) Glossary of Phytosanitary Terms, i.e., "a pest of potential economic importance to 

the area endangered thereby and not yet present there, or present but not widely 

distributed and being officially controlled." This practice is consistent with the IPPC, to 

which the United States is a signatory. This practice is also consistent with sections 414 

and 415 of the PPA, which authorize the Secretary to take general remedial measures, or 

to declare an extraordinary emergency if necessary, to prevent the introduction or spread 

of plant pests or noxious weeds that are new to or not known to be prevalent or 

distributed widely within and throughout the United States. 

All Federal noxious weeds were determined at the time of their listing to pose economic

and/or environmental risks to the United States. However, a Federal noxious weed may

be targeted for delisting if it no longer meets the definition of a quarantine pest, which is 

consistent with the PPA authority under section 414 for applying remedial measures.

Anyone may petition the Secretary of Agriculture to remove a weed from the regulations.

Minimally, a petition to remove a weed from the list of quarantine pests should provide 

one or more of the following, preferably in electronic format:
a. Evidence that the species is distributed throughout its potential range or has spread 

too far to implement effective control.

b. Evidence that control efforts have been unsuccessful and further efforts are 

unlikely to succeed.

c. For cultivars of a listed weed, scientific evidence that the cultivar has a 

combination of risk elements that result in a low pest risk. For example, the cultivar 

may have a narrow habitat suitability, low dispersal potential, evidence of sterility 

and/or inability to cross pollinate with introduced wild types, which then might 

produce seed of weedier biotypes, and few if any potential negative impacts on the 

economy and/or environment of the United States.

d. A list of supporting references.

2. Prepare a risk assessment

APHIS staff members prepare risk assessments each year as other priorities allow. 

Because resources for weed risk assessment within APHIS are limited, we encourage 

stakeholders to submit draft risk assessments for review. 

If an organism does not meet the PPA authority under section 414 of the PPA for APHIS 

to apply remedial measures; i.e., the organism is not “new to or not known to be widely 

prevalent or distributed within and throughout the United States,”, then the assessment 

stops and the plant is eligible for a proposal to delist it. If assessment continues, we 

consider a plant to be eligible for delisting if the outcome is a pest risk potential lower 

than medium/high.

3. Prepare an environmental assessment

If delisting a weed may have environmental impacts, APHIS prepares an environmental 

assessment (EA) in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act. (We do not 

prepare an EA when we propose delisting a weed due to a taxonomic reclassification 

determining the weed taxon is synonymous with a native species.) We publish a notice of 

availability of the EA in the Federal Register, receive and analyze public comments, and 

decide whether or not to proceed with a proposed rule.

4. Publish a proposed rule in the Federal Register

Because Federal noxious weeds are listed in the regulations in Title 7 of the Code of

Federal Regulations (CFR) parts 360 and 361, deleting a weed from the list requires a

change to the regulations under mechanisms laid out in the Administrative Procedures

Act (APA). The APA governs the way in which administrative agencies of the United 

States federal government may propose and establish or modify regulations. A weed 

program staff member prepares a work request, called a regulatory work plan, for a 

proposed rule to be published in the Federal Register for public comment. The regulatory 

work plan is submitted to a staff in APHIS that provides regulatory drafting services – the 

Regulatory Analysis and Development (RAD) staff. The RAD staff forwards the 

regulatory work plan for clearance through policy officials in USDA and assigns a writer 
to draft the proposed rule. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) classifies the 

action under Executive Order 12866, Regulatory Planning and Review. OMB may waive 

review of an action or will designate the action “not significant” or “significant.” Any 

action designated “significant” must be reviewed by the OMB before it can be published 

in the Federal Register. In addition to drafting the proposed rule, APHIS must complete 

various analyses required by laws and Presidential executive orders to support the 

proposed rule. These include an analysis of the potential economic effects of the rule on 

small entities.

The proposed rule and its accompanying analyses must undergo legal and policy reviews.

The Office of General Counsel (OGC) reviews for legal sufficiency. If the proposed rule 

has been designated “significant” by OMB, the proposed rule must be cleared by a 

number of USDA offices outside APHIS and then by OMB. If OMB waived review or 

designated the proposed rule “not significant,” there is minimal USDA review beyond 

APHIS, and the proposed rule is not reviewed by OMB.

Once all reviews are completed, the proposed rule is signed and sent to the Federal

Register. The public is invited to comment, usually for 60 days. During this time, the

World Trade Organization is notified about the proposed action.

5. Analyze and respond to public comments

After the comment period ends, we review all comments received. We identify each issue 

raised and decide how to respond. We do not respond directly to each commenter. 

Rather, we respond to issues raised by the commenters in the introduction (or 

Supplementary Information section) of the final rule. We must explain why we agree or 

disagree with the comment and what, if any, change we are making in the final rule as a 

result. Note: We can also decide to withdraw a proposed rule at this stage. If so, we will 

publish a Notice of Withdrawal in the Federal Register.

6. Publish the final rule

Review and clearance procedures for a final rule are similar to those for a proposed rule.

This includes submitting a document to OMB, based on which OMB may waive review 

of the final rule or will designate it “not significant” or “significant.” The final rule is 

drafted. The analyses prepared for the proposed rule are updated and adjusted if 

necessary. Final rules must also be reviewed by OGC for legal sufficiency and by APHIS 

and USDA policy officials and, if “significant,” by OMB. Once all reviews are 

completed, the final rule is signed and sent to the Federal Register. The published rule 

includes an effective date.